Morning Star
by willows dancing in the wind
Summary: Sam Winchester has broken the final seal, and what happens next nobody expected. Now he must regain his grace, convince Michael to call off the apocalypse, and figure out a way to tell Dean he's the devil reincarnated.


Ruby fell to the ground, the life sparking out of her eyes, killed by her own knife. Lilith was laying dead only a few feet away, streams of blood moving eerily to form a sigil Sam didn't recognize (and yet _something _about it tugged at his mind, as if it _should _be familiar). Shaking his head, he looked into his brother's disappointed eyes.

"I'm sorry," Sam said quietly, sincerely. And he _was _sorry, for so much-for trusting a demon, for drinking her blood, for becoming a monster, for not listening to Dean, for breaking the final seal and letting Lucifer free and jump starting the apocalypse. The world was going to end and it was all on Sam's shoulders.

Sam suddenly felt much older than his 26 years.

Dean opened his mouth to reply, but he never got a chance. The streams of blood finally joined with each other, forming a completed sigil. A thick stream of light flowed out of the circle, and Sam collapsed as a rush of memories-foreign and yet so familiar-came rushing back to him.

"Sammy!" Despite the fact that Lucifer was escaping next to him, Dean moved towards his fallen brother and knelt next to him, cradling his head.

The light continued to stream out of the sigil, a high pitched noise around them that made Dean cover his ears despite his wanting to check on his brother. It was too loud, too bright, too _much-_

And then it was suddenly gone-the convent, the light, the noise-and Dean was sitting on an airplane, still cradling his unconscious brother in his arms. He glanced out the window and saw a pillar of light pouring into the sky. He quickly buckled himself and Sam up as the plane hit turbulence that was, no doubt, caused by the close proximity of Lucifer escaping a few hundred miles below them. Dean glanced again at the column of light, swallowed, then turned his attention to his unconscious little brother. It didn't matter what Sam had done; Dean would berate him for it later, when he was sure that he was going to be okay and when he was actually _conscious. _Sam's safety came before everything else, always.

"Come on, Sammy," Dean muttered. "You gotta wake up now, come on..."

* * *

Sam remembered.

He remembered his creation, being bathed in the pure, warm, loving light of his Father. He remembered his Father's voice, saying, _"I name you, Lucifer, the Morning Star, the Bringer of Light." _He remembered opening his eyes for the first time, coming into being with the overwhelming knowledge that he was loved by the perfect being that had creation.

He remembered his older brother, Michael, standing loyally by their Father's side, welcoming Lucifer into being with a warm smile. He remembered the days that followed, when Michael taught him their Father's will, how to fight and fly. He remembered how much he loved his brother and how he wanted to be like him. He remembered the feeling of being showered in his Father's love and how wonderful it felt.

He remembered the creation of his younger siblings. Raphael came first, and then Gabriel. He remembered how right away Raphael chose Michael to follow around, and how Gabriel latched onto Lucifer. He remembered the feeling of being responsible for his little brothers and how much he loved them. He remembered teaching Gabriel how to use his powers to have fun.

And he remembered _her. _The Darkness. The one who ruined everything.

He remembered that Father kept the Darkness away from him and Michael and the younger two archangels. He remembered seeing her from a distance several times, but never being allowed close. He remembered Michael saying that she was the reason they were being trained to fight, that they were soldiers and that she was dangerous. She was a threat to their father who had to be eliminated. He remembered that no matter how far away from her he was, Lucifer still could always feel her darkness, like a sickening disease, reaching out to darken even the brightest places in heaven. He remembered feeling afraid of her.

He remembered the day when all the archangels were finally ready to battle her. He remembered his Father taking him aside and explaining that he had a very important task for Lucifer to do. The Darkness could not be destroyed, God said, but it could be contained. He said He could lock her away, but someone would need to carry the key to her cage. He said He wanted Lucifer to be the one to bear the Mark that would keep her and her evil locked away for eternity.

_"Be warned, Lucifer, that this Mark is a curse as well as a key," _God had said. _"It will try to change you, as it contains all her evil. You must not let it. You must be strong, my son."_

Lucifer could never say he hadn't been warned. He just wished he had taken God's warnings more seriously. But he hadn't. He had brushed them off, so eager to please his Father. He'd been naïve and prideful and it had cost him everything.

Lucifer had taken the Mark and they had locked the Darkness away, but he could feel her evil in the Mark on his arm, infecting him and darkening, corrupting his grace. Still, he fought it and its affects. He fought it for longer than any human mind could comprehend. He fought it while God created other angels, his younger, more naïve siblings. He fought it when God created the universe, all of its galaxies and stars and planets. He fought it when God created the first alien lifeforms, experiments that all died off quickly become their home planets weren't able to sustain life.

And then came a time when Lucifer couldn't fight off the Mark anymore.

Earth was a beautiful planet, and Lucifer loved it the most out of all the other planets his Father has created. He spent much time there, especially during the planet's early days. This planet was different from the others because here, the lifeforms God created did not die. Instead of perishing, they flourished. God's creations did things even He hadn't expected. Caterpillars turned into butterflies, tadpoles into frogs. Lucifer remembered feeling amazed at what the lifeforms God had created did on this planet when compared to the others. They lived, they evolved, and they multiplied. And so, it was on Earth that God decided He would create what He said would be his finest creation yet, the best and most amazing thing He would ever create.

Lucifer remembered the feeling of anticipation, the eagerness to see what his Father created next, something that would be even more amazing than the angels. And he remembered feeling sorely disappointed when he saw the final result.

Humans were incredibly lacking, in every department. They had no wings, no special powers. There was nothing to set them apart from the other lifeforms on the planets other than they looked different and they were slightly more intelligent.

Oh, and they had free will. But Lucifer knew that free will was an illusion. He saw it when God placed the man and his wife in the Garden and told them they couldn't eat from the one tree that could give them the ability to know right from wrong, good from evil. Their so called free will was nothing more than a lie, and Lucifer knew it.

Even without going against God's orders and eating from the forbidden tree, humans were still the most flawed out of everything God had created. Adam and Eve were not God's perfect creations. They were flawed, irredeemable, unremarkable. For the first time, Lucifer found himself hating something his Father had created.

Then God did something unthinkable. He asked the angels, asked _Lucifer, _to bow down before these unremarkable beasts, to love them more than anything else in creation. To love those flawed creatures even more than they loved their Father.

Lucifer couldn't do it.

He was the only one to refuse. Michael bowed, Raphael and Gabriel bowed, the lesser angels bowed. But Lucifer refused to bow before these lesser creatures, to love them more than his Father. There was nothing he loved more than God. Lucifer would not and could not love these abominations.

He refused, and the result was a civil war that shook the heavens and the earth.

Lucifer tried to make them see how flawed the humans were. First he tempted Eve and convinced her to eat from the forbidden tree. It was easy, too easy, and from there she brought the fruit to Adam, and Lucifer watched with glee as he too sinned.

_"Do you see, Father?" _Lucifer had said. _"How easily they were swayed to disobey you? They are flawed, I barely had to do anything."_

For that, God cast Lucifer out of heaven and forbade him to return.

But even with Lucifer's absence from heaven, war still waged. Other angels had turned to his side, and they continued the fight even when he was gone.

On earth, Lucifer was free to roam, jealousy and bitterness in his heart. He spoke to Abel, Adam and Eve's younger son, with the intentions of taking the boy as a vessel. But Cain overheard and begged Lucifer to take him instead, to let his brother go to heaven. Lucifer agreed, on the condition that Cain was the one who sent his brother's soul to heaven.

That was all the persuasion Cain needed. He murdered his brother in cold blood, and Lucifer took the boy as a vessel.

Adam was no longer being loyal to his wife and often laid with a woman called Lilith. She was beautiful and cold, and Lucifer was drawn to her like a moth to a flame. He got her alone one day, touched her soul, and corrupted it with ease, twisting it into something dark and evil.

_Perfect._

God wasn't the only one capable of creation. Lucifer took what his Father created and twisted it into something of his own. Lilith was his now, his creation not his Father's. Let God see how easily his perfect creation could be corrupted, how far they could fall. Maybe then He would see that Lucifer was right.

Lucifer called down his four generals from heaven: Azazel, Asmodeus, Dagon, and Ramiel. With a touch, he corrupted their graces into something dark and twisted, something that was _his, _just as he had done to Lilith's soul. They weren't angels. They were something else, something evil.

God was furious when He found out. He had Lucifer forcibly expelled from Cain's vessel and dragged back to heaven. Before leaving, however, Lucifer left a parting gift for his vessel-the Mark, the Darkness's Mark, branded forever on Cain's arm.

In heaven, standing before God and the other three archangels, Lucifer faced judgment.

_"Since you are unwilling to love humans," _God had said, _"I will make you. You shall be stripped of your powers and memories, reborn as a human. Your grace shall be imprisoned in a cage in the deepest part of hell. Sixty-six seals must be broken for you to regain your memories and your grace to be freed, the last of which being the death of your first creation, Lilith. It is my hope that by that time you will have learned to love humans like I do. If not, then Michael shall come to earth and you shall fight to the death."_

Lucifer remembered the blinding pain of having his grace removed, and he remembered the countless lives that came next. The last of which being the young man with demon blood pumping through his veins, currently slumped unconscious next to his human brother on an airplane.


End file.
